Minutes of August 3, 2009
Southeast Uplift Board Meeting, 7-9pm

Members present:
Marianne Colgrove, Ardenwald-Johnson Creek, Chair
Paul Leistner, Mt. Tabor, Past Chair
Pete Jacobsen, At-Large, Treasurer
Jeff West, Buckman, Secretary
Anne Dufay, Executive Director
Roy Hartley, Richmond
Kevin Moore, Kerns
Shirley Nacoste, IRCO
Alison Starkey, Eastmoreland
Moshe Lenske, Woodstock
Bryan Agee, Mt. Scott-Arleta, Vice-Chair
April Burris, North Tabor

Guests:
Lee Perlman
Don MacGillivray
Cece Hughley Noel (Portland Community Media)

Quorum established at 7:07pm and meeting called to order by Marianne.

Elections: April Burris (North Tabor) is re-affirmed to continue to be seated as representative from North Tabor. Moved (Moshe), Seconded (Paul), Passed
w/o dissent.

Minutes from last month: Correction by Paul – in update on reservoirs, reservoir covers should be identified as “treatment plant”.  It is also noted Bryan’s name is mis-spelled. Motion to approve as amended (Moshe), Seconded (April), three abstentions (Kevin, Bryan, Shirley).

Board orientation: Present board members each give an extended introduction, touching on their personal goals as a board member for the upcoming fiscal year and highlighting rewarding aspects of their participation in their neighborhood associations.

Marianne gives a brief review of general meeting conduct rules (Bob’s Rules).

Discussion of meeting practices regarding how board should handle the addition of last minute agenda items.   Marianne summarizes discussion:  board would like a fairly conservative approach to new agenda items and would prefer to have materials in advance with enough background information to feel comfortable discussing the topic.  In regards to truly time sensitive issues that do not allow for lead time, the board would like to hear about the issue but does not necessarily want to vote on something where they feel uninformed.    Marianne will work to tighten up the procedure; if not successful, by-laws can be amended in future (suggestions include requiring a two-thirds majority for voting on non-agenda issues, etc.)

Work-party announcement:  Pete calls on volunteers to join in a work party on Friday 8/21 and Saturday 8/22 (from 9am until Noon both days) to help “spruce up” the building – potential tasks include getting the entryway painted, covering up exposed wires, sanding down steps, re-treading stairs.   Anne mentions there will be another group doing work on the yard.   Paul suggests for future parties we consider registering with Hands-On Portland, a group which connects potential volunteers with work parties such as this.

Approval of interim action plan:  Southeast Uplift is required to send action plan to ONI for the current fiscal year.  Because organization has been in transition mode, Anne has reviewed last year’s plan and updated it and has reviewed with both staff and executive committee.   Anne notes the plan can be modified and re-submitted, although no timeline has been established for this – ideally a strategic plan should come before the action plan, although the over-arching goals defined in the last strategic plan are still of high value to the group.  Motion to use interim plan for submission to ONI (Pete), seconded (Bryan), passed w/o dissent.

Treasurer’s report:   Pete provides first of what will be regularly quarterly reports (which will be conducted the month after the fiscal quarter starts).  Pete notes he will bring books to every meeting in the event any board member wants to review on months when there is no treasurer report on the agenda.  Highlights of this quarter’s report include:

•    Budget & bookkeeping have not previously used same chart of accounts, but this has been rectified as of July 1st.

•    Budget is for the year ending June 30th

•    Payroll is the biggest line item below what was budgeted; Moshe asks if the Professional Services line item should be included in Payroll?   Pete notes Payroll item includes salary and benefits and that the interim director role was charged as a ½-time person to Payroll and her search consultant role was charged to Professional Services.

•    Tenant income is surprisingly more than expected as there have been no tenants in basement because of furnace since the end of the year.

•    Fundraising is $0

•    April asks what Program Rent Revenue line item represents?   Pete notes it is unclear what it was/is.

•    Pete notes working capital is defined as current assets minus current liabilities and typically an organization likes to have 2 months of operating expenses on hand.  SEUL working capital is currently negative, although it is less negative than it has been – this is partly why the Executive Committee worked towards conservative budget and that any extra income were put into cash reserves

•    Total cash on hand does not match funds held for others.  Anne comments that she feels confident that this is not insurmountable challenge. This year’s conservative budget allows for reserves being built & still allows organization to continue on building projects (improving assets, etc) and if this year’s budget stays on track (and it should) the $7000 surplus will make up difference. Marianne notes that revenues which the organization did not currently have were not budgeted, and reminds that the board voted that excess income will go towards reserve

•    Pete notes that a great deal of what has been going on over last few months has been finding/identifying mis-codings in the accounting, and we now clearly have a defined set of programs, funders, etc –

•    April asks if ONI is aware of the shortfall numbers?   Anne notes quarterly reports for ONI do not lay these figures out specifically, but ONI could still be aware – regardless, this has no impact on relationship and/or contract with ONI.

Solarize Portland:  Anne notes Tim and the Sustainability Committee have been working on Solarize Portland project and BPS has asked SEUL to write a letter in support of a grant.  Paul notes that ONI has already sent a letter in support, citing SEUL as a model for the role in the project.  Motion to approve sending the letter Tim has drafted (Bryan), seconded (Pete); Moshe points out that closing should change “I” to “We”; Passes w/o dissent.

Community Media presentation:  Cece Hughley Noel notes she is working on a smart access project to expanding Portland Community Media’s (PCM) reach into the community and allow neighborhood members to utilize media to tell stories.    PCM has received a grant to help fulfill mission and she is charged with setting up 2 smart access centers per year over the next 3 years and is asking SEUL to consider acting as one of the first access sites.   There is a cost to organization ($250-$1000 annual fee), and PCM will provide access to equipment, editing equipment, training for constituency, etc.).  PCM is still drafting proposed revenue sharing agreements which would have the potential for SEUL (as host site) to share some of the revenue.